Snipes sees all-white jury seated in Ocala

OCALA -- Lawyers for Wesley Snipes declared him "one day closer to vindication" Tuesday after an all-white jury was seated for the black actor's trial on federal charges of tax evasion.

"I have a lot of faith in human nature," said Robert Bernhoft, one of six lawyers representing Snipes, star of the Blade trilogy, Jungle Fever and White Men Can't Jump. "I believe these 12 people and four alternates will judge fairly and judge Wesley Snipes the way they would want to be judged."

The group of 11 women and five men includes a children's physical therapist for Orange County schools, a Howey-in-the-Hills man who grows orchids, a homemaker from The Villages and a caretaker for disabled children in Lake County.

Opening statements are scheduled for this morning. Senior U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges has allotted an hour each for prosecutors, Snipes' defense team and David Wilson, a lawyer for co-defendant Douglas P. Rosile, a former accountant who provided Snipes with tax advice.

A third defendant, anti-tax crusader Eddie Ray Kahn of Mount Dora, has refused to participate or accept the counsel of a court-provided lawyer, calling the proceedings "a sham."

Defense lawyers have insisted that Ocala is too racist for Snipes to receive a fair trial and were disheartened that the jury pool was bereft of black citizens.

They had unsuccessfully sought to move the trial to New York or Orlando, cities in which Snipes, an alumnus of Jones High School, claimed residence.

The trial landed at the federal courthouse in Ocala because many of the documents that make up the government's case were seized from the offices of Kahn's Guiding Light of God Ministries on Donnelly Street in Mount Dora. The Ocala division of the federal-court system's middle district in Florida includes Lake, Sumter, Marion and Citrus counties.

Prosecutors say Snipes conspired with Kahn and Rosile to cheat the IRS, filed a false claim for a $7.3 million tax refund and failed to file income-tax returns for the years 2000 through 2005.

Snipes' lawyers contend that his co-defendants victimized him.

Personally quizzing prospective jurors during the past two days, the judge booted nine people from the jury pool who said they believed that blacks commit a disproportionate share of crimes than other ethnic groups.

"I've done my own research," insisted John Hughes, 76, a Clermont businessman, who was one of those bounced.

He said he thinks he was removed not because of his opinion but because he was too busy with his oil-change shops to serve in a trial that could last two months.

Snipes offered no comment as he left the courthouse, where squealing fans shouted out "We believe in you" and snapped photographs.

He waved politely and signed an autograph before he was whisked away in a sport utility vehicle.